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"You did what?" A mixture of surprise and indignation spread across Joe's face. Elle, meanwhile, was in the Facility, her shift would be done in a few minutes, and she had just bumped into Joe and Ja'Marr, who had finished their independent training.

"I sent Brittany a DM apologizing for what's going on on the internet right now" she explained again as the two guys followed her into her office so she could pack her stuff.

"elle, girl, you know that Jackson and Brittany were ready to talk absolute trash just to make you look stupid even though you didn't do anything and now you're apologizing for karma punishing them for it?" Ja'Marr asked, shaking his head not understanding.

By now they had arrived at the office where Michael was sitting at the computer. Elle greeted him by raising her hand briefly before grabbing her backpack and starting to pack up the things from her desk.

"I just want to get this whole thing out of the way. I don't want to worry about it. I don't want it all over the internet that there's a fight when it's not true at all," she said. „Those two weren't exactly friendly, but it's not a reason to bash them on the internet" 

"I assume you're talking about your apology to Brittany?" Michael leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"How...how do you know about that?" confused, Elle stopped in her action of packing her bag and stared at Michael, waiting for an explanation from him. It had been just five hours since she'd sent the note she'd written with Leila, who wasn't too keen on Elle's idea either, to Brittany, and she hadn't told anyone about it except Joe and Ja'Marr.

There was no way Michael knew this message existed, he couldn't have overheard it anywhere. There was really only one way he could have known about it....

"Brittany posted it, it's all over social media" Elle's annoyed groaned "no" blurted out of her before Michael had even properly addressed her apprehension.

She dropped into her office chair in exasperation and slapped her hands together in front of her face as she cried out in frustration. "Let me see" Ja'Marr joined Michael at the computer, while Joe immediately knelt beside the chair and tried to calm Elle down.

"Maybe it's not as bad as you think, baby" he ran his hand over her arm while Elle boiled with anger. She had been so taken by how people on the internet were against Brittany and Jackson, yet all she wanted to do was help.

"I'm sure she wasn't just thanking me for apologizing" Elle growled angrily, taking her hands off her face to look at Ja'Marr.

He shook his head a little uncertainly. "Rather the opposite. She...she blurted out your message and only showed a few sequences, but in them it looks like you're admitting it was you and not them. It looks bad, Elle."

"Excuse me, what?!" Elle jumped up indignantly, causing the office chair to slide backwards and hit the wall with a loud crash. Joe had just pulled his hand away at the last moment before the chair would have rolled over.

Immediately he stood behind Elle and put his hands on her shoulders encouragingly. "Baby, I don't know if this is the right place and time right now for all of this to be happening. Maybe we should go home and you should call Leila so you can decide how to proceed."

Elle sighed. "Maybe you're right" she ran her hand over her forehead and was silent for a moment. "I should talk to Leila about it" she mumbled, grabbing her backpack and storming out of the room.

Joe had trouble following her as he rushed out of the room behind her. "Baby, wait" he caught up with her just before she reached the door and held her by the arm. When he turned her to face him, he saw tears gathering in her eyes.

"I think I should drive. You're way too upset to be behind the wheel" Joe mumbled into her hair as he pulled her into a hug.

"But what if they see us together?" Elle whispered against Joe's chest as she clung tightly to him.

"I think you have bigger things to worry about right now than someone possibly seeing us in a car" Joe interjected, taking her backpack from her. Elle nodded with a sigh.

During the drive, Elle hung silently on her cell phone. She had a few missed calls from Leila, but she didn't answer when she called back.

"Brittany even replied to me" she mumbled softly as she clicked on the message, read it, and with an indignant sound, closed her phone and tossed it into her backpack. As she turned her head to the window, Joe was aware that she was close to tears again.

"Hey, don't worry so much about it, okay? The truth always comes out. You didn't do anything wrong, you were just too nice, baby. Leila will get a handle on it, ok?" he took one hand off the wheel and reached for Elle's hand, bringing it to his mouth and pressing a kiss to the back of her hand.

Elle just scoffed softly. "You're right, the truth always comes out" she then grumbled, pulling her cell phone back out of her bag and frantically started typing on it.

"what are you doing?" Joe asked, surprised. "I'm revealing the truth" Elle continued to type around. "How?" "by posting not only my text but also Brittany's respond on social media"

"Don't you want to check with Leila first?" Joe relented. Elle shook her head vigorously. "too late already anyway"

They had just stepped through the front door when Elle's cell phone rang. "Leila, I have to take this" she gave Joe an apologetic look before answering the call and running up the stairs.

Sighing, Joe flopped down on the sofa and opened Twitter. He wanted to see what Elle had posted. It wasn't long before he found her tweet.

Tried to play nice to get it out of the way quickly, but some people are more fake than you think

Below that, she had posted a screenshot of Brittany and her chat history on Insta.

Hey Brittany, I just wanted to get back to you about all the stuff that's going around the internet right now. I'm really sorry and I assure you that I have nothing to do with it nor do I support it. Also, I'm really sorry if I came across as mean to Jackson and you. I just didn't have time for you guys because I was officially at work. Also, this whole "people know me and want to talk to me" thing is still pretty new and confusing to me, so it may be that my insecurity came across as arrogant. Maybe we can work it all out privately and not have to drag the public in even more, because no one deserves hate. I hope we can still work together for "the future is female". Love also to JacksonElle

You can forget about cooperation. I don't want to be associated with people who make my family and I look so bad on the internet. We did not do anything to you! And what you call working, we have seen then. You just stood there the whole time and watched them, you could have easily taken a little more time for us, but someone's fame must have gone to her head. There will be consequences and I hope people will see how fakely nice you are. Brittany and Jackson

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Sorry for not posting for a few days. I struggled with how to continue cause I had some different ideas, thanks to the people i asked what they'll like the most! I also was caught up in the release of 5sos new album 5sos5. If you need new music, listen to it. I absolutely love it!!!!

Anyone who's watching the game later and wants to chat about it? Need people to talk about it lol

Hope youre having an amazing Sunday!!

WHO-DEY 🧡